When you lose your ninth straight, there’s gonna be a few fingers pointed. Here are a few.
Busters
S Isaiah Pola-Mao
The Bucs scored four touchdowns in the game. And he was a part of
On the first touchdown, Jack Jones bit on a pump fake and Pola-Mao was supposed to give him help over the top. But he didn’t get over in time and Jalen McMillan scored the 15-yard touchdown.
Pola-Mao gave up a 20-yard catch that put the Bucs in scoring range on their second touchdown drive.
The Bucs had two big plays on their third TD drive. And Pola-Mao missed tackles on both of them. The first, he lowered his head and dove, leading to Mike Evans hurdling him to go for 32 yards. The next one he laid out and whiffed again on a 34-yard run that put them in first and goal.
The final touchdown drive featured a Pola-Mao giving up a catch and missing the tackle on a 45-yard play. Three plays later, they put the game away.
QB Aidan O’Connell
To lead out the second quarter, the Raiders got a rare takeaway. And on then O’Connell fumbled the snap on the first play of their possession to give it right back.
The defense would get it back again on their first fumble recovery of the season and this time AOC made something out of it. If not for Brock Bowers drawing a pass interference on third down, the Raiders would have likely only gotten a field goal out of it. That gave the Raiders first and goal and led to AOC getting the first rushing yards of his career on a TD sneak. Making it seem for a moment like the Raiders would make a game of it.
But even with a 29-yard run on the next drive, the Raiders couldn’t get a touchdown out of it.
To begin the third quarter, they had a long drive. And that QB sneak TD seemed to make AOC feel mobile for a moment. He tried to run it and got four yards, but hurt himself when he was tackled. He stayed in the game and the offense moved inside the ten. Then AOC tried forcing a pass to Brock Bowers and was picked off to get no points out of the 16-play drive.
The next drive, he tried rolling right and was pushed after the pass, hurting his leg bad enough they put it in an air cast and carted him off the field. Yeah, mobility is still not his thing.
C Jackson Powers-Johnson
Even if you don’t blame him for the fumbled snap, he had plenty of issues in the game.
After giving up a touchdown to open the game, the Raiders needed a response. They instead had a three-and-out. On third and ten, JPJ didn’t pick up the blitz and AOC was sacked for a ten-yard loss.
He was flagged for a blindside block on the next Raiders drive that called back a nice screen to Sincere McCormick. Though to be honest it was a pretty questionable call.
On the play in which AOC got hurt on the rollout, one of the defenders who was chasing him down got by JPJ.
Then there was another fumbled snap exchange between him and Desmond Ridder.
LB Robert Spillane
On the second TD drive for the Bucs, Spillane gave up a 13-yard run, then a 12-yard run, and then was standing in the middle of the field a few yards away watching Rachaad White catch the touchdown. That was three consecutive plays.
The next TD drive, he gave up the edge on a 34-yard run and then didn’t fill the gap on the three-yard touchdown run on the next play.
CB DeCamerion Richardson
The rookie has been a mainstay among the Busters since he took over for Jakorian Bennett after the injury. He was out of position on a 15-yard catch and run on the first TD drive.
In the third quarter he was posterized on a wicked stiff arm to give up a 12-yard run. The next drive, he gave up a 14-yard catch on third and eight. And the next drive he gave up a 32-yard catch, which was the big catch that seemed to get the Bucs offense back on track and they scored a two touchdowns down the stretch to end it.
WR Tre Tucker
The Raiders deep threat had two catches for seven yards. They went to him early and he couldn’t get open up the middle. A couple drives later, O’Connell threw for him up the left sideline and he couldn’t keep his feet inbounds.
P AJ Cole
He had four punts. None were stopped inside the 20 and one bounded into the end zone for a touchback to average a net 38.5 yards per punt.
